I just finished one of the most amazing book I have ever read. Its called Listening is an Act of Love and is a compilation of 49 stories collected from more than 10,000 recorded stories in the Storycorps Project. If you listen to NPR on Fridays, you might have heard one of these stories.

A few years ago the Storycorps Project came to Kalamazoo. It was located in Bronson Park right downtown, and you could make an appointment for a 40 minute time slot to share a story from your life. Many people took advantage of it. It turns out that all over the nation people took advantage of this opportunity, and still do.

This book takes a sampling covering a broad range of peoples life experiences – from reminiscences of living through the Great Depression, to watching a loved one die from cancer, to surviving a walk down 100 flights of steps in a World Trade Tower on 9/11. In this book you get a glimpse of ordinary people, doing ordinary things – or extraordinary as the case may be – and you are left with a beautiful picture of this American life. You will not regret picking up this book and getting caught up in its stories.